1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates, in general, to bathing devices and, more specifically, to bathing devices for hospitalized or invalid patients.
2. Description of Relevant Art
It is common for people confined to a bed to be given a bath while laying in a prone position on the bed. Such a need occurs frequently in hospitals and with invalid people requiring long term care.
While "sponge baths" are typically given to such people, such baths do not generally provide a thorough cleaning as does a bath where a large portion of the person's body is immersed in water. Such immersion also has comforting as well as therapeutic effects.
Various devices have been designed to enable a person confined to a bed to take or be given a bath while laying on the bed in a prone position. The available bed baths ae formed of a number of separate interconnected parts or elements and require some assembly or erection on the bed. This is time consuming and, in some instances, may be difficult since the person is laying on the bed.
Thus, it is desirable to provide a bath which is usable on a bed or other flat surface to immerse a person in water. It is also desirable to provide a bath which is formed of a small number of separate parts resulting in a low manufacturing cost for easy disposal after a single use. It would also be desirable to provide a bath which may be folded into a small compact package for storage and transport. Finally, it would be desirable to provide a bath which requires only a minimum amount of assembly or erection on a bed.